A key vote this week in Sacramento has moved California closer than most people could imagine to a future in which all electricity — 100 percent of it — is produced without releasing more carbon into the air. When Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León proposed the bill, many viewed it as aspirational. Now, it could actually become the law of the land.

SB 100 had already passed the state Senate and has now passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee as well as the even more difficult Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. That makes it likely it will end up on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California.